Under the direction of Ivo van Hove, this Toneelgroep Amsterdam production had an operatic quality to me. Starring Jude Law as the 'on-the-road' Gino who pitches up at a petrol station and restaurant run by Joseph and his much younger wife, Hanna. She is all frustration at her life, trapped in the middle of nowhere with a man she finds disinteresting. She hurriedly embarks on an affair with Gino, who commits effusively to her and murders Joseph. Now they are free. Naturally, enough, that i their undoing. Gino meets a gay man to tempt him back on the road and then a chorus girl comes along to throw herself at him. He complains of the same stultification at the petrol station that Hanna complained of earlier. It all ends unhappily.
The set was amazing with a huge truck engine that rose and descended spewing oil on the death scenes. However, it was odd that the actors were 'miked up' and delivered their lines, I felt, rather flatly. At the end the applause seemed rather subdued, maybe because the end was like coming out of an extended boxing match.
Critics seemed divided. The FT warmed to it; the Evening Standard didn't.
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